Spring Cleaning your Android Smartphone

Most Android phone, after about a year of use starts to bog down. Users are nagged with low storage space and battery drainage becomes an issue. It’s not always just the phone, but sometimes it’s also the user that is the problem. Here is a list of ways in which you can restore your older Android phone to its former glory.

Know your Phone

Step one is to know the actual state of your phone. This includes storage space left, apps you have installed, accounts that you have signed it, backup status and more. The biggest problem of Android is losing out on storage space over time. Check which app takes up how much space, check which apps you do not need. You can get all that information right from settings.

Backup phone and Offload the media files

First, connect your phone to your PC. When you make the USB connection, make sure you select the PTP mode that will make your computer recognize your phone as a camera or an imaging device. You can now use the image importing tool to get the images on your PC. On both Mac and Windows, you will have an option to delete the photos from the device once they are imported. Make sure that is checked and then import. This should free up some space.

Next, run a backup of the phone. You can back up personal data to your Google account. If you want to back up app data, you can use third party apps like App Backup Restore, TunesGo or Helium. Now, you can work on your phone without worries.

Complete pending system updates

If you have a system update pending, complete that. Firmware or OS updates takes up gigabytes of space unless they are installed. If the download is interrupted because of low storage space, then go to the next step.

Reset your phone, format your memory card

Even though a factory reset seems like a nuclear option, it should be done twice a year to keep your phone working smoothly. Before you reset, unplug your phone’s SD card. Using a card reader, backup all your media files, if you haven’t. Then format the card. This will make sure that the card is free from file system errors. Reset the phone and plug in your SD card. Now, your phone will be empty, but you will have all the data backed up.

Before you do anything now, install the system updates first.

Disable all that you do not need

Even on a phone after a reset, you will see OEM bloatware apps. Go to application settings and disable them. If there are Google services you do not use, disable them too. These apps also run in the background and uses up resources. They also update via Play Store and hence will incur data charges and use space on your phone.

Install apps that you need

Do not start installing everything from your library, just install what you will need. Keep an eye on the storage space.

Restore the backup

Now is the time to restore all your backed-up files. You can choose not to include older photos, or media files to be restored. After this, you will have a whole lot of space on your phone. Also, your phone will run a lot faster as a lot of garbage has been cleared out during the reset.

Clean regularly

Make sure you use an app to automate the cleaning process on your phone. You can use CCleaner – which is a no-fuss free cleaning app for Android. Other popular ones include clean master or speed booster.